I am interested in cardiac pacemakers.
The first portable cardiac pacemaker was developed by
Earl E. Bakken by taking the schematic from an article
in the Popular Electronics magazine on a metronome (!):
‘Five New Jobs for Two Transistors,’ Popular Electronics 4 (April 1956): 54–59.
Does somebody have this April 1956 issue and would be willing
to send me a scan of the pages 54 - 59 ???
But sorrily this is Europe,
no chance for finding it at any library.
Somtime this 1956 April issue appears
on ebay, but mostly they don't send it
to Europe.
Anybody out there having a copy
of that issue?
(If needed I could pay for a scan via paypal).$
You might try contacting Medtronic, which was founded by Earl Bakken in 1949 and was the manufacturer of the first pacemaker.
Failing that, I would contact a major medical center with a large cardiology department. If you were in the USA, I would suggest the Mayo Clinc or Cleveland Clinic. There may be similar institutions in your country that have a good sense of history.
John
Oh yeah, that's quite the circuit I'd want planted inside me to keep me alive! Incidently, I sat in on a medical rounds meeting long ago whereby cardiologists discussed the surrounding issues of pacemakers/defibrilators. Seems everytime a defib unit triggered within a patient, he/she would get zapped while driving a motor vehicle and at times veer off or cause an accident! Save one's life one way, take it back another way!
If the given first non-implantable pacemaker circuit doesn't
satisfy you, maybe you would like the swedish first implantable
version (see attached). You could even recharge it by induction !
And the other one is the original pacemaker by Earl Bakken. I wonder why he stated that he borrowed it from the Popul. Electr. April 1956 metronome circuit given above.
It is definitely more complex as the P.E. circuit: it has a blocking oscillator coil etc.